Sunday, December 5, 2010

A Naish Geeks Dream Board Chart

These boards have all been in my garage and were personally measured in careful detail. Enjoy! (The 7'3 is my estimation.....for Hunter). The nose and tail widths of the 7'8 provide clues about why it is stable.

Why would anyone want to buy a pair of shoes that won't fit them? There are not many custom shoe makers in the US but, there are quite a few realy good board builders. Just from my experience here in NSB guys show up with a small off the shelf SUP, and can barely stand on it, which makes it realy tough for them to catch a wave. Then swear up and down its the end all board of all time. Then you hear them cussing it and claiming its their fault they do not have enough balance or skill yet to ride the particular board or claim they are to fat and need to lose weight.Then I get asked what size board are you on? It looks stable your riding it pretty good. Then I say here try it I have a few more in the car of different sizes but the same volume for my weight and if you want to try those you are more than welcome. 10 minutes and 3 waves later 9 times out of 10 I have a cash offer on my board. My reply why not get one to fit you exactly. Does it realy make that much of a difference? Yes it realy does. Stability equals=Confidence, confidence allows us to take off later, go higher, and put ourselves in positions on the wave we simply would not do on a board that is to wobbly. I am 210lbs without a wetsuit on. I ride 159-168 liters or 5.7-6.1 cubic feet of foam whether its on my 6'6" SUP or my 11' nose rider. I say this because I notice a trend happening in SUP. Majority of SUP surfers I see are man sized 170lb to 240lb, 40ish year old or older guys who used to rip a surfboard but have issues with joints, knees, back or what ever and still want to surf and stay in shape. So why put yourself on something that is designed for a average small framed person or guy who gets to surf for a living? After building several hundred of these things and experimenting a bunch doing math figuring volumes design characteristics I found 2 important factors for stability on the SUP. 1st personal volume this is the amount of foam needed to properly float a person of a certain weight. 2nd is rail volume. For the best surfability and stability a neutral or slow rail works best. When I say neutral or slow rail I mean when it is fitted properly you get a very slow reaction to chop and you have total control over the sinking of the rail side to side when you put weight on it. Unlike rails that are to thin for a person which will sink with the slightest pressure There are 3 different rails Corky or to thick, Slow or neutral, and Thin. No matter what thickness SUP with the proper bottom contours, rocker and template you can make a 9' SUP ride like a 6'2" prone board. These factors apply more to us on the east coast than the west. Simply because 80% of the time we are surfing choppy conditions, this is when stability realy comes into being very important. I have a few boards that are thin for me and thinner rails they ride unreal but are atorturous nightmare in choppy conditions. Not that the Naish SUPs are not unreal boards they just do not build a smaller board that would fit me properly or alot of people for that matter. Anyone who gets down to NSB look me up I have a sizable quiver of SUP's from 5'10" up to 11'and am more than happy to share the Stoke...Push the limits,Ron Neff

No argument from me Ron. It is sad to live in one of the biggest surf towns in the mid Atlantic and have so little to chose from. We have several big factories in town. One has 14 full time shapers pumping out boards like Channel Islands for example, yet none of those shapers have become hard core SUPers. Until they do, they won't be earning my money. Custom boards are hard to sell used, so I can't afford to be someones R&D experiment. I can buy and sell Naish or PSH easy. I lost 20 lbs 2 years ago to fit production boards better. Most of us old guys could loose a few pounds

I understand your point alot of shapers have not done the time and R&D on these things. I find it hard to sell any SUP under 8'6" to the general public. Here is a kicker I can sell about 70% more SUP's than I can build. Just this past summer I have been through 3 laminators and as of right now cannot find anyone experienced in surfboard construction who wants to work on a SUP. It Realy sucks.... It also kind of sucks people do not realize if you laminate good quality 2lb EPS foam with multiple layers of S and E glass and good quality epoxy you can create a product that will withstand years of being bashed with a paddle, dropped on the ground and basically beat to death and stay nice and white, ding free and strong. SO I hit my boards with a sledge hammer to show people they hold up. I can understand why guys like PSH, Coreban, Naish are producing their product overseas the labor factor here in the US is a issue atleast in my area anyway. Look me up if you get down here to Florida this winter.

Dwight if you have surfline premium mebership check the NSB inlet HD cam out today the shallows are breaking 1/2 mile off this morning lower tide you can ride all the way through to the beach. Our inside little right point wave is working today just enough east southeast angle on the swell today. Probably 8ft faces on the shallows today. $0 miles south in Cocoa is maybe 1.5 ft today.Peace,Ron